HOUSTON – Harris County officials are celebrating the start of a new construction project Thursday which will bring two affordable housing communities for its senior residents and families in need.
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There will be two groundbreaking ceremonies on Thursday at 10:30 a.m. and 2 p.m., respectively, for new communities as part of a partnership with Harris County Housing & Community Development, the Redevelopment Authority, and the Harris County Housing Finance Corporation along with The Cesar Chavez Foundation (CCF).
With rising rent prices, these affordable housing projects come at a vital time. A report from the Kinder Institute for Urban Research found monthly rent prices outpaced median household income increases.
The 10:30 a.m. groundbreaking will be for a senior-focused community called The Tidwell. Organizers with CCF say it will be an apartment building with 99 units; 98-one bedrooms and just one two-bedroom unit for the property manager.
It will be located at the intersection of Tidwell Road and Bauman Road in Houston and Harris County Precinct next to an accessible bus stop between I-45 and I-69. Roughly, the total cost of this project will be about $25 million with funding sources forming from several partnerships and a 4% low-income housing tax credit from the Texas Department of Housing.
The second housing community being developed by CCF is called The Upland, which will break ground at 2 p.m. Located on Upland Drive and Timberline Road in Spring Branch near Precinct 4, this community will feature 120 apartment units with a mix of efficiency, studio, one, two and three-bedroom units.
The homes will be affordable for those at 30, 50, 60 and 80 percent of the area median income near a mix of single-family homes, multi-family development centers as well as schools and bus stops.
This project’s total cost looks to be about $36 million with a 9% low-income housing tax credit from the state Department of Housing along with funding from Harris County partnerships.